Azure Chronicles: Maelstrom

A.C Zalroth(wearing a Long snow grey fur coat, dark rouge red cargo trousers, black tank top, and Silverwood getas while also having only eight kitsune tails and has super long hair tied back using a black cloth with five hair bangs) hurtled through the air, careening through mountain after mountain before finally decelerating enough that he didn't go through another mountain. Zalroth clicked his neck before he amusedly exhaled and gazed up at the pale yellow sky. He examined the sparse dark yellow clouds that sailed through the sky and took an interest in the one that was vaguely in the shape of a cat.

However, Zalroth's cloud-watching was cut short by the howls of a serpent-like winged earth dragon. Zalroth sighed as he pulled himself out from the mountainside and watched the dragon as it rapidly approached. Zalroth removed his fur coat and tied it around his waist.

"Use the improved magic marks I made, already, I worked really hard on them!" a kid Minia (wearing a dress made from her gelatin slime, and she has three gelatin kitsune tails) shouted out with a pleading demeanour from the make-shift picnic camp that she, a kid Nola (wearing a t-black shirt, and black shorts), some of the visages/egos(all of which were in their small animal forms) and Chronia were sitting on. Zalroth rolled his eyes and supposed it was worth giving them a go. Zalroth flexed his arms and the two sun tattoos on the back of his hands lit up before the magic tattoos began to spread up his arms and both entered their second stage.

"Heh, neat," Zalroth thought to himself. Zalroth inspected the second stage magic sun tattoos and was impressed at how quickly Minia was adjusting to using the Elemental Tattoo azure ability, as the dragon drew closer to Zalroth. Zalroth smirked and pulled one of his legs behind himself before he super leapt at the dragon. Zalroth pulled his left arm back as tons of black mana particles spewed out from the second stage black sun tattoo and mixed into the fire mana surrounding his left arm. The particles merged with the flames and transformed them into shadow flames as he was mere moments away from being within striking range of the dragon.

"Shadow Jet Cra-" Zalroth managed to say before the dragon's body started to balloon up and rapidly increase in size. The dragon's body continued to stretch and expand before popping like an actual balloon, without any guts or the sort coming out as the dragon's insides had been nothing but air. The flames around Zalroth's arm were quickly snuffed out as the sun tattoos reverted back to their inactive states.

"What happened!" Minia shouted disappointedly as she angrily punched the lavender-coloured grass-covered ground. Nola tried to comfort Minia by saying that maybe the shadow flames Zalroth made were so intense that they completely destroyed the dragon with its sheer pressure. Minia adamantly disputed Nola's words and stated that the only way that could possibly be true is if Zalroth had used his dark blue flames to mix with the black sun particles. Zalroth landed in front of the group and Minia asked what had happened to the dragon.

"The dragon turned into an actual balloon," Zalroth explained, leaving Minia and Nola with even more questions. The sisters continued to barrage Zalroth with a multitude of questions but only stopped when Chronia (wearing a loose-fitting black crop top with a cartoony pink cat head on it, super baggy black cargo shorts, pink thigh-high stockings, and pink cat-themed sandals) yawned so loudly that the siblings know Chronia was doing it intentionally.

"Would you two keep it down? I'm trying to sleep here," Chronia lazily said as she repeatedly yawned and scratched the area underneath her crop top.

"But muum, dad won't tell us why the dragon transformed into a feeble balloon," Minia stroppily stated, as Chronia slowly sat up when an eerie distorted-sounding breeze of wind blew past the group. Zalroth glanced up at the sky, watching a small part of space above the group start to bend and contort as the distorted breeze began to become more prominent.

"Zalroth is it that thing again?" Chronia asked with a disappointed tone. Zalroth watched as the distortion in space began to spiral downward to the group and form into a sphere.

"Seems so," Zalroth muttered. The space distortion began to morph and contracted into a faceless humanoid adult male with tree root-shaped wings, that rapidly grew leaves before the leaves instantly scattered before the process repeated. Minia and Nola panically ducked behind Chronia, as Zalroth walked up to the space distortion.

"I figured you'd manifest yourself, when something as surreal as a dragon turning into a popping balloon," Zalroth remarked. The space distortion placed its arms behind its body and slightly gazed down at Zalroth.

"Going with surrealism would yield a more cooperative version of yourself, compared to simply removing the lizadtoid," the distortion said with an uncountable volume of voices that spoke in unison. Nola and Minia quietly whispered to Chronia and asked if the distortion was dangerous. However, before Chronia could answer, one of the distortion's tree root wings grew and spiralled over to the girls.

The branch spitted apart before morphing into a book and bee-themed dress; Minia quickly grabbed the book and excitedly flicked through the book while Nola grabbed the dress and happily put the dress on.

"I appreciate you trying to use a different method than just forcing us with... whatever the supernatural power system you use but do you really think bribing us would work?" Chronia asked. The distortion glanced over at Chronia before Chronia got a surprised expression.

"Oh...," Chronia muttered which caught Nola and Minia's attention.

"What is it, momma?" Nola asked as she tugged on the sleeve of Chronia's crop top.

"Oh, Existence just informed me the stuff they gave you wasn't a bribe but a sign of goodwill for us helping them in the past... well future," Chronia explained. The sisters didn't really understand what Chronia had said but decided to nod their heads in acknowledgement and went back to checking out the stuff they got. Zalroth sighed in amusement at how disinterested his daughters were towards the thing that was before them.

"Zalroth," Exsistance stated in an imposing voice, causing Zalroth to turn to face Exsistance quickly.

"Yes...?" Zalroth asked before he sighed in disbelief.

"You want us to what...?" Zalroth muttered in confusion.

"Due to some collaborations of unforeseen union between two separate realities they have become intertwined and..." Exsistance said before they stopped talking, right before Zalroth started to talk almost as if Exsistance knew Zalroth was planning to finish their sentence.

"And you want us to go to that other reality and figure out a way to separate them right?" Zalroth asked. Existence didn't show any signs of being surprised at Zalroth's guess but did confirm Zalroth was right. Existence pointed at Nola as a transparent crystal ring materialised in front of Zalroth.

"While the portal creator wears this ring, she'll be able to create a portal between the two worlds," Existence stated before they placed their arm back behind their body. Existence also added that Zalroth should have his literal other half and the egos/visages look for the anchor point in their world while he and the rest look for the anchor points in the other world.

"You make it sound simpler than it's going to be," Zalroth jokingly remarked as he grabbed the ring.

"It is that simple, find the tethers between the realities and destroy them," Existence stated before their form unravelled and completely dispersed. Chronia angrily groaned as she picked up Nola and Minia while the egos and visages started to pack up the picnic equipment.

"That thing always shows up whenever we get a break; oh, I should probably call Maya and tell her she'll be the Acting Supreme Guild Master for a while," Chronia thought aloud as Zalkutaro (wearing a colour-swapped version of Zalroth's outfit) arrived with a sunzie-smoovie thing and noticed the group was packing up. Minia and Nola tried to tell Zalkutaro what just happened while constantly interrupting each other; even though he already knew, he pretended not to know and let the sister clumsily retell the events of what happened.

"I see..., well I appreciate you two for giving me such vital information; knowing your father he probably would have just told me we need to go break stuff and nothing else," Zalkutaro remarked as he took a sip from his sunde-smoovie. The sister happily nodded their heads and felt confident at how helpful they had been.

"You lot best be off then; we'll deal with things here while you lot have fun in some unknown reality," Zalkutaro said with a fake upset tone. Chronia placed the two sisters back on the ground before the two hurried over to Zalkutaro and tried to console him.

"Don't worry ult dad, we'll bring back a souvenir," Nola cheerfully stated. Zalkutaro chuckled at Nola's words and said they didn't need to go that far, but he appreciated the sentiment. Zalroth strolled over to Nola while she giddily hopped on the spot. Nola held out her hand while covering her mouth with her other hand and pretended to blush.

At first, Zalroth wasn't too sure what Nola was doing but just assumed she wanted him to put the ring on her finger for her. Zalroth lightly held Nola's right hand and gently slid the ring onto Nola's ring finger. Nola quietly giggled to herself as Minia squinted her eyes at Nola.

"Were you trying to recreate that scene from that manga where the princess received their magic ring from the king?" Minia asked. Nola smugly confirmed Minia's suspicions; she pulled a manga out from her hair and showed Minia the page they were both thinking about. Chronia amusedly chuckled as she climbed onto Zalroth's back and rested her head on Zalroth's shoulder.

"You two sure don't seem to be in a rush," Chronia remarked, seemingly making the sisters realise they were holding their parents up. Nola stashed her manga back in her hair before she and Minia climbed up onto Zalroth's back as well.

Nola sheepishly pointed her hand, the one with the ring on it, out and created a strangely transparent, colourless circular vortex portal. Zalroth-and-co told the other to take care and not to get into any trouble, with Zalkutaro and the other mirroring the sentiment, before Zalroth jumped into the portal. The portal swiftly closed and Zalkutaro gazed up into the sky with a sour expression while his lips retreated into his mouth.

"I think I order the wrong sunzie-smoovie," Zalkutaro commented before continuing to drink the sour-smoovie and making his sour expression even worse.